DATE: Sunday, November 2, 1997              TAG: 9710310095

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E10  EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, ENTERTAINMENT WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   93 lines

``RED CORNER'' STAR RISKS LIFE WITH ROLE

``I DO NOT WISH to be silent any more, and yet, I am afraid. I hope nothing happens. My grandmother is back in China.''

Chinese film star Bai Ling was talking about the release of her first American starring role, as a Chinese lawyer who defends an American accused of murder in Beijing. To her, taking the role in ``Red Corner'' was more than just a job. It was a risk.

``I live in China,'' she said.

``I will go back. But when they see this film, I don't know. I fear most for my grandmother. She is very old and does not want to leave. I have not tried to get her out. She wants to be there. I was raised by her. My parents, who are school professors, sent me to live with her when I was 7.''

``Red Corner'' stars Richard Gere as an American businessman-lawyer who is in Beijing to make a deal for cable television outlets in the lucrative new Chinese market. After a flirtatious meeting at a nightclub, he wakes up the next morning with police breaking into his hotel room and the body of a dead Chinese woman near him.

He quickly learns that the Chinese judicial system is swift. The average trial is less than four hours, and the conviction rate is close to 99 percent. A person guilty of a capital offense is shot within a week of his sentencing, and the cost of the bullet is billed to his family.

This government doesn't mess around. It also, if the film is to be believed, doesn't give fair trials.

``The film is true,'' Bai Ling said as she sat in Los Angeles recently. ``If anything, the system is more strict than pictured.''

In taking the role, Bai Ling risks her own life if she chooses to go back to China, which she hopes to do.

Bai Ling, wearing an ornately brocaded silk coat and trousers, looks like a delicate flower, and she speaks with the same gentleness. It is not by accident that she is often compared, in her country, to the legendary Hollywood star Audrey Hepburn. Yet her soft-spokenness is accompanied by a determination to remain a part of her native country - no matter what.

``My role in the film is a bridge between the East and the West,'' she said. ``A bridge between the old and the new. China is very much in a period of change. It must be allowed to grow.''

It is not by coincidence that the film's release coincides with the American visit of Chinese President Jiang Zemin. Star Richard Gere, who has been banned from China for his outspoken resistance to that country's occupation of Tibet, urged that it be released now.

Bai Ling said she was not awed by Gere's star status. In fact, she had never seen any of his films.

``I have never seen `An Officer and a Gentleman,' '' she said. ``But, since I was cast, I have seen `Pretty Woman' and `American Gigolo.' I find Richard very charming and likable. He was very concerned, like me, with getting truth into the film.''

The movie, directed by Jan Avnet, is suspect, though, because the script was originally set in Russia. The Moscow setting was changed when Russian communism came to an end. But Bai Ling maintains that it has been carefully researched for the switch to China.

The actress, now 27, was in Tiananmen Square during the protests there. ``I was there every day,'' she said. ``I was one of the first to get out of China after the riots, because I was sent to a film festival.

``We were told not to talk about Tiananmen Square, yet everyone was asking about it, and everyone seemed to hate the Chinese for it, thinking we represented the government. I could not speak. Now, I am tired of being silent.''

At age 14, she was a soldier in Tibet. ``It was a part of the entertainment wing,'' she said. ``I traveled Tibet with the troupe, doing musicals. The altitude is so high in the Himalayas that it is very difficult to sing. We needed oxygen tanks.''

Two years later, she was at New York University as an exchange student.

``The English language is like an ocean to me,'' she said. ``Very difficult. Like trying to swim across the ocean.''

Nonetheless, she got small roles in Oliver Stone's ``Nixon'' and as a mystical villainess in ``The Crow.'' Because of her love for her native land and her grandmother, she returned to China. ``Because I am mainland China, Ang Lee could not use me in `The Wedding Banquet,' '' she said. ``He could use only Taiwanese actors. It is very restricted who can work where.''

Owing to the subject matter, and especially because of Gere, ``Red Corner'' could not be filmed in China. A huge set was built in Los Angeles to represent Beijing. More than half the cast was flown from Asia and could not speak English.

The opening scenes, however, were shot in China, with Bai Ling riding a bicycle through Tiananmen Square. Gere was put into the Chinese setting via computer technology later.

`It was dangerous for her,'' director Jan Avnet said. ``We filmed a number of exterior landmarks that are used to give the film an authentic look. None of the filming was authorized. She was fearless.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo

RICHARD FORMAN JR.

Chinese actress Bai Ling makes her American debut opposite Richard

Gere in the thriller ``Red Corner.'' KEYWORDS: PROFILE BIOGRAPHY MOVIES

CHINA

Send Suggestions or Comments to webmaster@scholar.lib.vt.edu